Little River Medical Center gets $5 million in federal stimulus funds

The waiting room at Little River Medical Center is always pretty busy.

By: Rusty Ray | SCNow
Published: December 16, 2009

The waiting room inside the Little River Medical Center is almost always busy these days. With so many people out of work, with little or no medical insurance, the community-based health care providers take a "treat first, pay later" approach to medical care.
"If it wasn't for Little River Medical Center, I couldn't afford to go to the doctor," said Janice Johnson.
Johnson and other patients can receive all kinds of medical care at the facility, but, thanks to a $5.5 million dollar grant--part of the federal stimulus bill--the facility will soon be more than doubling its size and adding more services.
Construction on the 24,000-square-foot addition could begin as early as late 2010, and doctors at the medical center say it will allow them to offer even more care and coverage for patients in the community.
Medical Director Dr. Luis Insignares said his staff hopes to offer mammograms and bone density scans on site once the new addition is complete.
"We're a great nation," said Dr. Insignares. "We have a lot of things available to us. We have CAT scanners, we have these machines available, but the public can't afford them, and so they don't get the health care they need."